First of all, please allow me to show my utmost appreciation to eveyone who has generously provided their insights in face painting. You are all masters in your own rights, and I am flattered for having your attention alone. Some of the opinions have fundamentally changed my method from now on, such as varnish for sweat, beard shade joining hair etc.

I agreed with most of you on the importance of white highlight. I applied it, and then returned to my old self, masking the whole thing with a thin layer of (burnt rose + existing flesh mix + minimum amount of grey) via air-brushing. I feel this will soften all tones, but the highlight might be as subtle as before, to your dissappointment...

And apologetically, I never really managed the quality of my pictures. I simply can't find the time for that.

I might as well be known as the "highlight-resistant" dude. I am baffled by myself sometimes...

Tony, is the beard shade ok now? (pls say yes!!!)

Michael while I agree with most pf what the others told you in the previous thread, and you are making progress, can I ask you a question please?

I know that you are spraying this one, but have you looked at Jaume Ortiz's thread on how to paint a face SBS? And also on Ernesto Reyes's most threads especially his last knight? His approach and colours are pretty much close to Jaume's.

I think you can after all, adapt their colours to spray.......

Just my 2c worth and keep up the good work.

Ray

Michael,

YES!!

Much better. I'd like to see some darker shadows under the eye brow ridge, under the nose and eyes, the bottom lip and under the chin.

Keep up the good work.

Great! This is like a classroom. One problem solved, now tackle another. And that makes you a patient teacher with very specific guidance, Tony!

Ray, thanks for pointing me to the right directions. I will spend some time reading them. I am quite familiar with Jaume Ortiz's style. I can always recognise his works, without fail. Since I am a big fan of Alpine Miniatures, a lot of my purchases feature his box art.

Hi Michael,

The best advice I ever received in relation to painting faces was to put a mirror on my workbench while painting faces and use my own face as a guide. Even under artificial lighting you can see how the light falls on various parts of the face, creating the natural highlights and shadows.

Although the intensity of the highlights and shadows is a matter of personal preference, the positioning of those highlights and shadows will be more or less the same on all faces.

And yes, you're right. Just when you think you've tackled one problem, another one pops up. That, to me, is the real challenge to figure modelling and why I love it. You're constantly learning, trying new things, picking up tips from other modellers and experimenting with new products and evolving your style. So long as you feel you're making progress and gradually improving,you'll get enormous satisfaction.

Most of the people I know who have tried figure modelling and given up, did so because they under-estimated how difficult it is to master and lacked the patience to perfect their painting skills. Somehow they just assumed they could pick up a figure, paint it and make it look realitsic without having to study human anatomy and develop a range of painting techniques that are specific to figure painting. I've been at it for more than 20 years and I still learn something new with every new figure I start.

Keep asking questions and you'll get all the help you need from your fellow Planeteers.

Pal, spot on old buddy.Well done !!RobH

Thanks Carl and Rob!

Carl, what does "That's three yeses" mean?

Cheers
Michael

Thanks Carl!

Now I need to deepen the shadow in the beard area as pointed out by Tony. Then I can finally move onto my favourite, the eyes!

I was really hoping to have some feedbacks on how I fared with the white smock but all comments were on the face only... Jay has kindly provided me guidance on painting white and I will try that out when the next opportunity presents itself.

Cheers
Michael

Sorry, I didn't want to assume that was completed. Looked great when I was doing those few tweaks in Photoshop! Is it the ivory/off-white colour it looks to be? If so, good choice since wear can so easily make white fabric go very slightly yellowish/sienna coloured.

Just a quick bit on this:

I'd recommend being careful with a lighter flesh mix applied overall, it can make the shadows look a bit 'chalky' (although it's often great for realistic halftones). When doing zenithal spraying care needs to be taken especially when applying the lights not to apply those colours where they're not intended, unless a specific effect is intended.

One way you can use this intentionally is to represent veins - paint them the colour of blood and overspray with skin colour and they end up looking exactly like veins look (because one is essentially replicating the real effect)

Einion

Hi Einion,

Thanks again for the great many tips. Just a quick answer, the primary colour of the smock is sand + white. I now regret not giving more weight to sand, as it is now hard to be distinguished from places which are actually white like the fur and the stripes in between.

Cheers
Michael

Looks very good, Michael. Try to make a photo in daylight, should be better.

Best regards
Artur

You can always mask off and give the smock a quick mist coat to tweak the colour slightly. The masking will probably be tedious but the results can be well worth it; the ability to do this is one of the key advantages of having an airbrush.

Alternatively, make the 'white' fur less white and more greyish, or a beige/parchment type colour?

Einion